Hip-hop pioneers Upper Hutt Posse enter the NZ Music Hall of Fame next month.
They will receive the 2018 Legacy Award.
Co-founder Dean Hapeta says it was the first group in the country to bring out a rap song.
"When we got offered the award, it did cross my mind - of course it has to come to a hip hop band, a rap band, sooner or later."
The award will be presented at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards next month.
Hapeta says they are proud of the contribution they have made.
"We got the ball rolling with 'E Tu' back in 1988 as the first 12-inch rap single released in the country."
The band's most recent album, Declaration of Resistance, was released in 2011.
They're the first rap group to make the Hall of Fame, though Che Fu is already there as a member of Supergroove.
Newshub.
